The Delhi High Court on Monday posted for hearing on a petition on issue of safety and security of the Prime Minister on April 30, noting that the Supreme Court is already seized of the issue.
At the outset of the hearing, a Bench of Chief Justice D.N. Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh said petitioner Ashish Kumar could seek a representation with the Central government on the issue. The Bench noted that the top court was awaiting the report of the committee appointed by it.
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Mr. Kumar has sought a declaration that all authorities, civil or military, shall act under the supervision of the Special Protection Group (SPG) in matters of security of the Prime Minister and his immediate family members.
Lawyer V. Govinda Ramanan, representing Mr. Kumar, said the plea was on a limited point of law that the SPG should have the power of superintendence in respect of the Prime Minister’s safety. Mr. Kumar stated that he filed the petition after going through media reports on a security breach during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to Punjab.
Central government’s counsel said the Supreme Court was already seized of the issue.
SPG’s role
Mr Kumar, in his plea, argued that the security of the Prime Minister “cannot be left to the discretion” of the States and the absolute superintendence in matters of his safety should be exercised by the SPG. He argued that the SPG was created with the sole purpose of ensuring the safety and security of the Prime Minister and all authorities are, therefore, duty-bound to aid their functions.
The petitioner alleged that recently, “the Govt. of Punjab, including the police officials of the State instead of coming to the aid of” SPGin terms of Section 14 of the SPG Act, 1988 was “creating obstacles to the proximate security of the Hon’ble Prime Minister”.
The plea said, “It came to the knowledge of the petitioner (Mr Kumar) via media reports that there has been a breach in the security of the Hon’ble Prime Minister during his recent visit to the border state of Punjab on January 05, 2022, which, inter-alia, is further evidence from the fact that his convoy was stuck and was made to wait on a flyover for more than 20 minutes, thereby, exposing and putting his life at risk to a terrorist attack.”
It argued that in a country that had witnessed the assassination of two former Prime Ministers, such security lapses posed a great threat to national security and also put the life of the common citizens at risk.
